Image by Nick Harris flickr CC

6sqft recently reported that so many people are hopping on Citi Bikes that even bus ridership has been affected. But there are parts of New York City–Staten Island and the Bronx for example–don’t have that option because the familiar blue bikes haven’t made it into their neighborhoods–yet. Citi Bike parent company, Motivate, has approached City Hall with a plan that would add 6,000 bikes to the system–4,000 of them in areas that currently have no docks–without spending tax revenue, the New York Daily News reports.

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Photo via Peter Burka on Flickr
A new before-and-after study shows that in New York City thousands of potential bus rides are likely happening by bike instead, reports CityLab. Recent research published in a new journal article on bike sharing stations along city bus routes, by Kayleigh Campbell and Candace Brakewood, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York, revealed that for every thousand Citi Bike docks situated along Brooklyn and Manhattan bus routes, bus trips dropped by 2.42 percent. The study includes trips made between May 2012 and July 2014 and controls for a wide variety of factors in order to show the impact of bike sharing on bus ridership.
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After initial skepticism and half-hearted arguments from bike-haters and snide remarks from bike snob cities like Seattle and San Francisco, New York City’s first official bike sharing system has turned out to be a success–that much we know. The numbers compiled by Priceonomics Data Studio for their client Spin reveal some surprising numbers when it comes to how we’re using those bikes. D.C., for example, beat the other cities handily on most metrics, with San Francisco and Seattle consistently at the bottom of the list. Ok, so the research was done for a bike sharing startup hoping to expand its station-less system (more on that, too), but it’s interesting to compare statistics of share programs in the nation’s biggest adopters of this new public transportation option–and get a chance to see how Citi Bike fares.

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The NYC Department of Transportation has released its new “Cycling in the City” report, which examines how frequently New Yorkers use bikes as a mode of transportation and how that frequency has changed over time. In 2016, there were 14 million Citi Bike trips taken, a whopping 40 percent more than the previous year. And in terms of general bike riding, the DOT found that daily cycling grew 80 percent from 2010 to 2015, with 450,000 cycling trips made on a typical day in New York. But what has this meant for drivers? Less parking, thanks to the the city’s 1,000+ miles of bike lanes. NY1 reports that in Manhattan alone, 2,300 parking spots south of 125th Street were lost in recent years to bike lanes and bike-sharing stations.

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Citi Bike is gearing up for a high-tech upgrade this winter in the form of lasers, reports Metro. The bike share’s operator, Motivate, and the designers at Blaze have teamed up to outfit 250 bikes with Laserlight, a safety light that combines a 300 lumen LED with a forward projecting laser that continuously beams an image to warn cars and pedestrians a bike is approaching.

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Software Engineer Todd W. Schneider is a super data geek in his spare time, analyzing New York City’s publicly available stats on topics like the transportation system. Recently, he took a closer look at the Citi Bike system (h/t Untapped), which clocked over 10 million rides in 2015–22.2 million rides from July 2013 through November 2015–making it one of the world’s largest bike share systems. Schneider’s findings spotlight general trends in Citi Bike usage and give us the big picture, via charts, maps and some fascinating animation, on the migrations and tendencies of our busy population of blue and white bikes.

See where all those bikes are going

• Here’s an excuse to head up to Upper Manhattan. Setting sail tomorrow, the S.S. Hangover will launch its six-week installation showing people the wonders of the northern end of Central Park [Untapped Cities]
• 39 Citi Bike stations will pop up in the Upper West Side by late summer [DNAinfo]
• Sad to see the Snowden bust go? Now you can get a 3D-printed miniature replica of the piece of art [Animal]
• Morning commutes can make you want to punch someone. Woosa your way by listening to podcasts [Refinery 29]
• If you’re not lucky enough to have a garden, rook deck or even a terrace, don’t fret. You can still grow edibles right in your apartment [AMNY]

• Stereotank’s heart-shaped urban drum in Times Square known as Heartbeat will turn into a “heartseat.” [Inhabitat]
• A Kickstarter campaign is raising funds for a documentary film about Horn & Hardart’s iconic Automat. [Gothamist]
• Mapping the 53 new Citi Bike stations coming to Williamsburg and Greenpoint. [BK Paper]
• A small shop in Ridgewood, Queens is the reason NYC still has neon signs. [Animal]
• Take a black history tour at Green-Wood Cemetery this weekend. [Brownstoner]

Images: Heartseat via Stereotank (L); Citi Bike (R)

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Images: Erinn Valencich (left), Studio Gang’s Solar Carve Tower (right)